All the absolute best to you and yours this holiday season.
First, gotta talk about it, because
it’s pretty much the thing that happened here this summer. The Mouse
River got completely out of hand with a flood that broke all previously known
records. It essentially split the city of Minot into two mutually inaccessible
hills while construction crews worked feverishly and nonstop to shore up
temporary dikes using the one open bridge. Traffic ground to a crawl along the
bypass, making for some hours-long commute times.
The commute along the bypass toward the end of June.
Others, displaced by the flood for an
indefinite amount of time, lost their homes. Fully a quarter of his city’s
40,000 residents were displaced by the flooding and the mandatory evacuation.
People all over town opened their homes, reducing the pressure on Red Cross
personnel at their shelters, even as the local Red Cross headquarters were
flooded as well.
Some of the cleanup after the flood. More images here and here.
This put the inconvenient commute I
struggled with on a daily basis in some stark perspective. My apartment was
situated well above the floodplain. But as the waters rose and refused to
subside for a good long time, as images came in from neighborhoods I recognized
I was struck by the sheer incalculability of the damage. And while we may not
have lost a life in this sorry state of affairs, we indeed suffered loss.
People have moved away who will not return – some I know, some I never met. And
it’s impossible to ignore how some shattered buildings stand open as our –
gratefully mild – winter has begun.
A rainbow I photographed following a gullywasher June 25,
2011.
The flood hit at a time when this area
has been experiencing a somewhat lopsided economic boom. As work has expanded
in the oilfield, people have been flocking to this region for work, leaving
lower-paying jobs going begging for capable people in town, and rents have gone
up while wages, generally, have not. The flood wiped out a number of rental
properties, but I’ve been so amazed by people who have lost so much are still
willing to organize work crews and assist others with the cleanup, as well as
people who have opened their homes to their friends and neighbors on an
extended basis. That is some inspiring stuff, so there’s absolutely some light
in this as well.
It would be impossible to ignore the
sense of trauma and loss that has settled in across a region used to grim stoic
perserverence through weather troubles – generally much more manageable, much
less destructive snowstorms, which by this time last year we’d already had our
share.
I’d sort of been reacting badly, and I
came to realize by the middle end of August I’d basically been nothing but sad
for months, and it had to do with the flood and lots of things but mainly I was
alone. And after years of searching for women, putting myself out there and
getting nowhere, I decided that it was time to explore the other half of my
bisexuality.
Which essentially I’ve been my whole
life, it’s just, being bi means you’re attracted to women as well, and since I
never really had a lot of opportunities to meet guys who might be interested I
never bothered. But I figured if the women I was meeting weren’t going for me,
maybe someone else … would.
So I clicked
on a few online dating sites – I had an account at eHarmony to meet women as
well, but it became clear really quickly that that wasn’t going to happen
unless I had a couple extra hundred $$$ sitting around specifically to be
introduced to them in the first place. Meanwhile I was meeting a good range of
fellas on the bear sites, shared interests with some of them and struck up some
good conversations when I met Ralph, the sweet fellow on the left just there.
He’s a younger guy, late 20s,
originally from Utah. He’s living in Kansas City, Mo., at the moment. We’d been
chatting since about mid-October, over which time we started to develop
feelings for each other. He managed a visit the first weekend in December and
there was a very strong connection which I would like nothing more than to
develop further, but yeah, I’d say I’m pretty much falling for him. Never had a
boyfriend before. It’s … kind of nice.
Not to mention this year had already
been plenty emotionally draining even before the flood. A group of us put
together Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” for the Minot Area
Theatrical Society in April, coming off an especially exhausting winter of
tight rehearsal schedules, emotionally demanding scenes and a show that makes
some extraordinary demands on the memory of its cast.
The show is essentially a two-hour
conversation punctuated by a fight, a dance and some infidelity. George, my
character, and Martha, played by Ceecy Nucker, are a middle-aging couple at a
New England college, fresh from a party to welcome new faculty members. One of
them, Nick, joins us for a nightcap, along with his wife, Honey, played by Jon
Placek and Nicolette Nelson.
The cast and crew of the Minot Area Theatrical Society’s
production of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” included, from left, Les
Younger, Jon Placek, assistant director Christine Morse, Amanda Kraft, Gerald
Stevens, Nicolette Nelson, Ceecy Nucker and Terry J. Aman.
Over the course of the evening George
and Martha serve as cautionary tales for their new playthings and no one gets
out entirely unscathed.
This show was one I’d wanted to do
since I first saw it in the early 1990s and when the opportunity arose to take
it on as actor and co-director with my fellow castmates, I was thrilled,
excited and … well, scared. George speaks seven languages in this show, along
with the Mass of the Dead in the original Latin. We’d hoped to have a good six
months at least to prep the show, but in fact had just over three. So it got
smacked together pretty good, but reactions were overwhelmingly positive.
And while I would love to reprise the
role at least once sometime down the road, it is no small undertaking.
Presented properly, the show should be emotionally draining for the audience as
well, and that puts some additional demands on the actors involved.
Still, in a year with plenty of
excitement – I also took on a couple of much more manageable roles with the
Mouse River Players this fall, “Roger Maris On Stage” and “Rounding Third and
Headed for Home” – playing George in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” stands
out as a singular accomplishment – seriously “bucket list” level stuff. I’m so
proud of the work we did and the show we staged, I’m in awe of my fellow cast
members, so grateful to Christine Morse for her hard work and dedication
throughout and oh yeah, definitely, I would do it again in a heartbeat.
My initial plans following that show
were to take the rest of the year off. However, along with the shows I took on
with the Mouse River Players, the MATS attempted to stage the comic spy
thriller “The 39 Steps.” I’d have sat it out but it was just too funny and I
guess I knew I needed to take on something light.
Sadly, that show was overcome by
events, so we have rescheduled it for April. If you’re able to come out and see
us Easter weekend, I’m thinking it’s going to be just as funny a second time
around. Very much looking forward to being involved in that one – I take on
some insane costume changes as well as some screamingly funny characters in it.
Beyond that, a couple of trips planned
for the coming year. If I’m near where you are I’ll at least try to hook an arm
out the window and wave. Otherwise, all the very, very best to you and yours
for a happy holiday season and a joyous 2012!